Sunday, January 23, 2011

Potpourri!

Plantains from the tree behind the Mission Office.  They are delicious fried just right!
Mangoes!  Throughout the Mission Office grounds we have mango trees.  We also have monkeys who love the mangoes so it is a race to see who gets them first.  The monkeys like only the side that faces the sun because it is ripe. Often mangoes are found half-eaten because the monkeys are so particular.  President Roggia had three tonight.  He says they were very, very tasty.

One morning while getting in the vehicle, this really fantastic praying mantis was on the roof.  If you click on the picture, you can really see it's eyes.  It looks like it's staring right at us! It is just such a detailed picture...I liked it.
Before Elder Gunderson (Dano, now) left to go home in November, we drove to Liberia.  We saw the rubber trees and he used my camera to get these really great pictures.  Notice that the bottom one caught a drop just perfectly...thanks, Dano!
This DHL bike is how we receive our pouch mail and some boxes.  They have a  truck that comes when we have large orders from distribution in Accra, Ghana.  Mostly, though, we see this same delivery man on this bike.  We like to see him as do the elders who live in the apartment by the Mission Office!

Markus goes to the post office and picks up our packages and any letters that come to the "Box 263" address.  As you can tell, Christmas had a large overflow of packages. And this was only about half of them.  We received lots more after this picture. Surprisingly, some packages only took two weeks to get here and some were two months.  Go figure...
The flora here is so wonderful.  I just have to give you all some idea what it is like.
Beautiful hydrangeas!  One of my favorites!
On our way to Bo a couple of weeks ago... the sun was behind the haze and fog of the early morning.  It was so vivid.  I wish I could have gotten it better for you all.  It was so very distinct and clear at the time.
Elder and Sister Neves on one of their many trips to Bo and around Freetown to take mail, propane tanks, food etc, to the missionaries.  They do a lot of teaching too.  They do so much in so many ways...
Elder Jenkins (6'4") and Elder Lambson (6'2") with one of their investigators...such great missionaries...so kind and good.  He really wasn't that short; it just appears so between these men of stature!
Elder Njaga...just really a great picture of him and shows his tender heart. (Elder Lambson in the background)
The Young Men and Young Women of Freetown Branch had a youth conference and are playing a board game.  They were laughing and having a good time together.
We went to a store called "The Essentials".  We had gone there to explore it the day before but decided to go back to buy a couple of things.  When we got there, the electricity was off and their generator wasn't working either.  So, the clerks handed each of us a light (in my right hand) and off we went upstairs to shop.  We were the only ones in the store.  We decided to call it "the blue light special".  It is one of the better stores in Freetown with lots of items but also pretty expensive.  It was totally dark in there even though it is light from the flash in this picture.



1 comment:

PB'nJ said...

Did you ever think you would live in a place where monkeys lived in your back yard? Or mango trees? I love it that the world is full of so many interesting and wonderful things. It is so easy to get caught up in the drama of the negative - thanks for the reminder of all those things that are "lovely or of good report."